Snap on sectional furniture



" May 28, 1957 R. F. SPITZ SNAP ON SECTIONAL FURNITURE 2 Shee ts-Sheet 1'Filed April 24, 1953 [Li INVENTOR. RAYMOND F. 5P/7' Z BY Ill ll L42 lsUnited States Patent SNAP 0N SECTIONAL FURNITURE Raymond F. Spitz,Colorado Springs, Colo. Application April 24, 1953, Serial No. 350,799

2 Claims. (Cl. 155-496) This invention relates to furniture and moreparticularly to sectional furniture units whereby different types offurniture, such as chairs, divans or sofas, davenports, beds, etc. canbe assembled as desired.

One of the objects of my invention is to construct improved sectionalfurniture which will permit the making of various kinds or types offurniture by assembling selected sections together and quickly andeasily connecting them in very firmly held together pieces.

A further object is to provide in sectional furniture improvedconnecting means for quickly and easily permitting various sectionsthereof to be associated with each other or taken apart and when thesections are connected together the resulting piece of furniture willhave all parts thereof very strongly attached to each other in a mannerbetter than when the piece of furniture was made by permanent factoryconnections between parts, such as screws, bolts, glue, etc.

Another object of my invention is to produce a sectional chair unitcomprising essentially a seat section and a back section detachablyconnected together which, when disconnected and used together and alsowith sections of other like chairs also so disconnected and usedtogether in the same manner, can be causedto produce a bed.

Yet another object of my invention is to produce a sectional chair unitof the kind above referred to with which can be associated readilyattachable and detachable arms for positioning alongside of the seatsection and so connectable only to said seat section as to provide avery strong and firm arm or arms for the chair.

A. further object is to produce an improved sectional chair unit whichwill be constructed for ready attachment to and detachment from likechair units positionable on one or either side thereof to thereby permitthe establishment, if desired, of a larger piece of sitting furnituresuch as a divan or sofa or even a still longer piece of furniture suchas a davenport.

A still further object is to provide attachable and detachable arms foruse with sectional furniture of the kind above referred to, which armscan be used either singly or in pairs so that any piece of furniturebeing assembled can have one or two arms as desired.

A still further object is to produce sectional furniture of the kindreferred to which will have strong basic frames for each section, easilyupholstered in various kinds of material so as to be very attractive inappearance, regardless of how various sections may be assembled.

Other objects of my invention will become apparent from the followingdescription taken in connection with the accompanying drawingsillustrating sectional furniture units and assemblies embodying theinvention.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a view of an armless chair which forms the basic piece offurniture embodying my invention, said chair having two sectionscomprising a seat section and a back section;

Figure 2 is a view of the chair with which is associated attachable anddetachable arms;

Figure 3 is a view showing three chairs assembled together along withtwo arms to produce a large piece of sitting furniture such as aso-called davenport;

Figure 4 is a view of three of the chairs having their seat sections andback sections rearranged and attached together so as to produce a bed;

Figure 5 is a perspective view of the frame structure for the seatsection;

Figure 6 is a sectional view taken on the line 6-6 of Figure 5 showingthe panel member with upholstery material thereon and dropped to coverthe clamping units and the holes thereof;

. Figure 7 is a perspective view of the frame for the back section;

Figure 8 is a perspective view of the frame for the arm;

Figure 9 is a sectional view through adjacent frame parts of sectionsshowing a preferred clamping connecting device for accomplishing quickand easy, yet exceedingly firm, attachment of one section of thefurniture to another;

Figure 10 is a view similar to Figure 9, but showing the frame parts ofthe sections separated and units of the clamping connecting device intheir detachable position;

Figure 11 is a top sectional view of the clamping device, said viewbeing taken on the line 11--11 of Figure 9; and

Figure 12 is a view showing how two of the lever units of the clampingdevice can be employed to connect two seat sections together in side byside relation when desired.

Referring to the drawings in detail and first to Figure 1, my improvedsectional furniture has as its basic piece a chair unit which is formedof two sections, namely, the seat section S and the back section B,these two sections being constructed so as to be readily attachedtogether to produce the chair unit or detached so the two sections areseparate and can be independently handled as desired and associated withother like chair units. The seat section is formed from a framegenerally indicated by the letters SF and shown in Figure 5. This framecan be made of wood or any other suitable material and it comprisessides 10 and 11 and ends 12 and 13 so connected together as to form abox structure. At the back end of the frame structure, which in Figure 5is indicated as the end 12, the frame has an extension 14 to establish arear ledge 15 on the frame structure. At the four corners thereof thereare provided feet 16 which are shown at relatively short, but ofsufficient length to support the chair at the four corners only and alsoprovide means for facilitating movement of the chair on the floor. Thebox-like part of the frame formed by the sides 10 and 11 and the ends 12and 13 will be open at the bottom beneath the floor portion thereof, aswill also be the extension 14 below the ledge 15. The purpose of this isto permit ready access from the bottom of the seat section so it canhave quickly attached thereto the back section and the chair can haveattached to either of its sides arm sections or other seat sections oflike sectional chairs. This seat frame shown in Figure 5 is onepreferred form of my invention and is 29 inches in width and 28 inchesin length. The ledge at the back is about 9 /2 inches wide, with theledge being approximately 3 /2 inches above the floor. Although thesedimensions are preferable, they can be varied if found desirable to makewider or deeper chairs. The frame structure for the seat will besuitably upholstered in any material desired. This upholstering, if theframe is made of wood, can be readily attached as by tacking. The seatsection will have the usual cushion pad P, as

shown, this cushion being suitably padded and provided with yieldablesupports, as is usual practice. The cushion may be integral with theseat section frame or removable.

The frame structure for the back is shown in Figure 7 and is generallyindicated by the letters BF. The frame may be made out of Wood or othersuitable material and has sides 17 and 18 and ends 19 and 20, all joinedtogether to form a rectangular frame structure. The sides 17 and 18, asthey approach the end 19 which will be the top of the back, are shapedto increase in width or depth so as to make the top of the back ofgreater thickness than the bottom, all as clearly illustrated in Figure7. In a preferred form of the back frame it will have a width of 29inches and a length of 28 inches which will be the height when the backis up. The greatest thickness at the top part of the back will be 9 /2inches and the thickness at the bottom will be 6 inches. Of course,these dimensions can be varied if desired, but they have been found tobe preferable in connection with the specified ledge of the seat frame.The back frame structure will be suitably upholstered as desired byusing padding and covering material to conform with the material used onthe seat section.

To make a complete and full chair unit or other units, I also providearms A which will be used only when arms are desired for the chair unitor any of the other sitting furniture to be made from this chair unit,such as the smaller divans or sofas and the larger davenports. The armsA are made from a frame structure shown in Figure 8 and indicatedgenerally as AF. This frame structure has end pieces 21 and Z2 and thetop and bottom pieces 23 and 24, thus forming -a generally rectangularframe, the length of which will be equivalent to the length of the seatframe SF including the ledge, or shorter as desired. The width may bevaried, depending upon how wide it is desired to have the arm so as togive the chair a select appearance. In addition to the rectangular framestructure just described, one side of the frame can be closed by a lightpanel 25 (made of heavy cardboard if desired) and this will become theoutside wall of the arm. The other side of the frame will be providedwith a strong panel 26 adjacent its bottom, said panel beingapproximately the same height as the seat frame structure SF alreadydescribed. The arm frame may be made of any suitable material such aswood and it will be covered by fabric or other material such a woodstrips, plastic, etc., to blend with the seat and back sections. If thearm is uniformly covered on its front and back, it can be employedeither as a right or left arm on the chair or other piece of sittingfurniture. If it is to have certain decorations, then the fabric will beput on both arm frames in such a manner that there will be right andleft hand arms.

In order to connect the back section to the seat section in a mannerwhich will permit the two sections to be firmly and quickly attached,yet easily detached, I employ special clamping connecting devices whichare shown in detail in Figures 9, l0 and 11. I also use these sameclamping devices for attaching and detaching the arms to the seatsection or to attach the seat section of one chair to a seat section ofanother chair. I have designated the connecting clamp generally by theletter C and it is formed of a hook unit H and a lever unit L. All ofthe lever units L will be arranged to be mounted upon the seat frame SFand all of the hook units H which are to cooperate with the lever unitswill be mounted upon the back section and the arm sections. As bestshown in Figure 5, the lever units on the seat frame may be six innumber, there being two on the side 10 of the frame, two on the side llof the frame and two on the ledge 15 of the said frame. The hook unitswill be on the back section and the arm sections. As shown in Figure 7,the bottom piece 29 of the back will carry two of the hook units and, asshown in Figure 8, the lower inside panel 26 of the arm frame will carrytwo of the hook units.

Referring to Figures 9, l0 and 11 showing a preferred construction of myclamping connecting device which I employ to connect an arm section tothe side of a seat section or a back section to the ledge of a seatsection, the hook unit, which will be attached to either the bottomframe member 20 of the back section or the side panel 25 of the armsection, comprises a plate 27 through an opening of which is a slidablerod 28 having a book 29 at one end and a shoulder 30 near its middlewhich is to engage the inside of the plate to limit the movement of therod through the plate. On the outside of the plate opposite the hookthere is provided a strong coil spring 31 of conical shape placed insurrounding relation to the end portion of the rod. The small end ofthis spring is arranged to engage a cross pin 32 on the end of the rodand the large end of the spring is adapted to engage the outer surfaceof the plate. The spring will thus tend to pull the rod to the left asseen in Figure 9 and to a position where the shoulder 30 will engage theplate. The spring 31 will be under compression and act to resistmovement of the rod in a direction to move its shoulder 34) away fromthe inside of the plate. When the hook unit is mounted for operation itwill be arranged to have the hook end of the rod extending through anopening 33 in the frame part upon which it is mounted.

The lever unit L of the clamping device will be arranged to be mountedupon the side members It) and 11 of the seat frame structure and theledge 15 of the said frame structure. This unit will have a body supportmeans 34 for attachment to the frame member upon which it is to bemounted and outwardly extending from said body will be two parallelflanges 35 and 36, with the flanges having longitudinal slots 37 and 38.The unit has a generally L-shaped clamping lever 39 and adjacent itsangle part it will be pivoted to the free end of an arm 40, which armwill be pivotally anchored by a pin 41 to the lower ends of the flanges35 and 36 having the longitudinal slots. On the opposite side of theangle part of the lever there is pivoted thereto a latch plate 42 whichwill be arranged to extend between the two flanges 35 and 36 and thenproject into an opening 43 in the frame member on which the lever unitis to be mounted. The inner end of the latch plate is provided with ahole 44 which can receive the hook 29 on the hook unit to thus connectthe rod 23 of the hook unit to the latch plate of the lever unit. Inaddition to being pivoted to the arm 40, the lever 39 will be connectedto the body by having on its inner end outwardly extending pins 45 and46 received respectively in the slots. These pins act as movable fulcrumpoints and guides as the lever is operated to properly operate the latchplate.

When the lever unit is inoperative, the lever will be in the positionshown in Figure 10 and the pins will be at the lower ends of theirslots. When the lever is operated by swinging its free end downwardlyand causing it to pivot and fulcrum on the free swinging end of the arm40, the pins 45 and 46 will be moved upwardly in their guide slots withthe result that the latch plate 42 will be pulled to the right, asviewed in Figure 9. If the latch plate is engaged with a hook it willpull on the hook and compress the strongspring 31, with the result thatthe .two frame members upon which the two units of the clamping deviceare mounted will be firmly clamped together under a strong yieldableforce. When full clamping action is obtained, the pins 45 and 46 will beat the extreme upper ends of their slots and will abut against the endsof the slots. These slots are of such length that when the ends areengaged by the pins the leverwill be over center; that is, the pins willbe slightly above the line of pull on the latch plate and this willresult in an over center" locking action. By having the angle part ofthe lever 39 pivoted to the latch and to the arm on opposite sides asshown, there will result a construction providing a general straightline pull on the latch plate.

Tests have shown that when this clamping device C is used to establishattachment of any of the sections of the furniture, these sections willhave a very firm connection which will be stronger than any permanentfactory connection used in building furniture, such as would be providedby bolts, screws, glue, etc. It will be particularly noted in connectionwith the clamping device that all the lever units, which are the unitsto be operated by hand, are carried by the seat frame and easily reachedwhenever the seat section has its bottom exposed, such as would be thecase when the seat section is placed on any of its sides. It will befurther noted that the lever unit L is very easily operable to bringabout the extremely firm clamping action and once the lever unit isoperated to bring about the clamping action such will be wellestablished without any possibility of loosening, since the operatinglever 39 will be in an over center locked condition. The generalstraight line pull of the latch is also very effective in bringing aboutan easy and proper positioning of any of the sections of the furniturerelatively to each other as clamping is attained.

When the lever unit L is not being used to accomplish clamping, thelever can be placed in its down position or operative position, as shownin Figure 9, and under these conditions the latch will be pulled intothe opening 43 in the frame member. This, however, will still leave theopening 43 in view and result in unsightly furniture. To cover up anyholes on the side of a seat section, I provide on eachside member 10 and11 a swingable panel which is seen in both Figures and 6. This panelextends over the entire length of a side member on the outside thereof,but only covers the upper portion of the side member. The panel is shownat 47 in Figures 5 and 6 and it will be noted that at one edge it ishinged by suitable hinges 48 to the central part of the frame member asthe exterior surface thereof. When the panel is up in the position shownin Figure 5, the holes through which the latch plates can extend will beexposed so that connection can be made to the hook units. When the panel47 is allowed to drop down, it will then cover the openings throughwhich the latch members can extend and thus these openings will becomehidden. When the seat frame is covered with upholstering material, thismaterial will be placed upon the upper part of the side frame member, asshown in Figure 6 at 49, and material will also be caused to cover theside of the panel 47 which will be exposed when the panel is in downposition to cover the openings, this upholstering material for the panelbeing shown at 50 in Figure 6. To hold the panel upwardly when it isdesired to use the clamping devices, the panel can be provided with oneelement 51 of a snap structure which will cooperate with a companionsnap element 52 on the frame member so as to snap the panel in its upperposition.

In many uses of my sectional furniture it is desirable to place the seatsections alongside of each other to make additional pieces of furniturefrom two or more chairs or to make beds from two or more chairs, all aswill be explained. However, it will be noted that the seat sections allcarry only lever units L of the clamping devices and thus no seatsection has a hook unit H which can cooperate with the lever unit. Topermit a connection between two lever units and thereby allow a clampingconnection to take place, there will be employed a small U-shaped orhairpin member 53, illustrated in Figure 12. In use, this U-shapedmember will have its legs dropped into the holes 44 of two of the latchplates 42 when the levers thereof are in inoperative condition, thusproviding a connection between these two latch plates. When the leversare now moved to an operative position, the latches will be pulled inthe opposite direction and thereby produce a clamping connection betweenthe side frame members of two seat sections of the chairs.

By my improved sectional furniture it will be obvious that many piecesof furniture can be made therefrom. If it is desired to have a chairprovided only with a back section and a seat section and no arms, then aback section will be attached to a seat section, all as illustrated inFigure 1. However, if it should be desired to have arms on this chair,they can be purchased and used. The arms may be suitably padded andcovered with upholstery material so as to have their appearance blend inor have a contrast with the upholstery material of the seat section andback section. The arms can be readily attached and can either be of afull length, as illustrated, or of a shorter length. A chair with armsis illustrated in Figure 2.

If it should be desired to make a larger sitting piece, several of thechairs can be arranged in side by side relation. When such is done theU-shaped member 53 shown in Figure 12 will be employed with the leverunits on the seat sections to bring about a connection between thechairs. Figure 3 shows an extra long piece of sitting furniture,commonly known as a davenport, and it is made up of three of the chairunits. This davenport could be assembled without arms if desired. Whenarms are desired, they will be attached at the outer side of the two endchair units as shown. If a shorter piece of sitting furniture isdesired, such as a divan or sofa, then two units will be employed andwhere arms are desired, such will be attached to the outer sides of thetwo chair units involved.

When three chair units are available, they can be made into a double bedand such a bed is illustrated in Figure 4. To make such a bed, the arms,if any, will be removed and the backs of the three chair units will alsobe removed by releasing the clamping devices situated beneath the ledge.The backs now will be laid down so their lower portions will rest uponthe ledge and their upper portions will rest upon the floor. It will benoted that the frame of the back section is constructed so that theupper portion will be thicker than the bottom portion and the differencewill be substantially the same as the height of the ledge 15 of the seatframe above the floor. Thus, when the lower portion of a back is causedto be placed upon a ledge as illustrated in Figure 4 and the upperportion of the back section is caused to rest on the floor, the topsurface of the back section will be substantially level with the sittingsurface of the seat section. When all three chair units have their backsections arranged to rest upon the ledges of their seat sections and theseat sections are attached together, all as illustrated in Figure 4, avery comfortable bed will be provided.

If only two chair units are available, it will still be possible to makea single bed out of these two units. This will be accomplished by takingone chair unit, removing the back therefrom and conditioning it in thesame manner as if the bed in Figure 4 is to be made. The other chairunit will also have its back removed and then its seat will bepositioned at the front of the first mentioned chair unit seat sectionwith the fronts of the seat sections adjacent each other in a manner asillustrated in dotted lines in Figure 4. This will then provide a singlebed of a sufficient length for one person. If a still longer single bedshould be desired, then of course the back section of the second chairunit can be associated with the ledge of its seat section in a manneralready described. All sections will then be in line.

The arms also can be employed as pieces of furniture when not desired tobe used as arms for a chair or other sitting furniture. They can be sodesigned that one can be placed upon the top of the other in a neatarrangement and thereby provide a table which could be used alongside ofa bed or at some other desired place. If the full panel 25 of each armis made strong enough, the arms when stacked could also be used to forma sitting bench. The arms could be decorated in wood or plastic materialwhich could serve as a stable covering material when the device is usedas a table top or chair arm.

Being aware of the possibility of modifications in the furniture shownby way of example as embodying my invention, all without departing fromthe fundamental principles involved, I desire it to be understood thatthe scope of the invention is not to be limited except in accordancewith the terms of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. In sectional furniture, a chair unit comprising a seat sectionprovided with a frame structure having side members, a back section,means for attaching the back section to the seat section, arm sections,and means for detachably connecting the arm sections to the side membersof the seat frame structure when the arm sections are positionedalongside of the side members, said last named detachable connectingmeans for each arm including a manually operable unit carried by eachside member and operable from the inner side thereof, and means forcooperating with a connecting unit on a side member and a like unit on asimilar piece of furniture as above defined for enabling the connectingunits to be operable to detaehably connect the seat sections of piecesof furniture together in side by side relation.

2. Sectional furniture as defined in claim 1 in which the side member isprovided with an opening and the connecting unit is provided with a partto extend through the opening when the unit is operable to make aconnection, and means carried by the side member for covering theopening when the connecting unit is not in use.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS

